(NASA / Caltech)
Ingenuity made its twelfth flight on the Red Planet, having flown 450 meters in 169 seconds.
This flight again broke the record for difficulty, and its goal was to find interesting objects for the Perseverance rover, which will soon meet with the drone.
The Ingenuity was landed on Mars by the Perseverance rover in April this year.
The marsdrone has already worked much more than the estimated period of three months and managed to spend 11 flights during this time
The device flew 2221 meters and received many both color and black-and-white images of the surface of Mars.
The total flight time of the drone was 1139 seconds, and the maximum lift height was 12 meters.
Currently, Ingenuity is engaged in aerial photography of the terrain for Perseverance as part of an expanded scientific program.
The drone made its twelfth flight on August 16. It climbed 10 meters and flew a total of 450 meters, the entire flight lasted 169 seconds.
The helicopter again broke the record for the complexity of the route.
At first it moved in a straight line, then it hovered, took a five-meter “step to the side” to obtain images, from where stereo images of the terrain would be made in the future.
Then, keeping the camera's field of view in the same direction, the drone returned to the same place where it started.
The flight was also difficult due to the uneven terrain, which created difficulties for the drone's navigation system.
The mission of this flight was aerial reconnaissance of the South Séítah region, color images obtained by the drone, will help the Perseverance research group to identify interesting boulders, outcrops of rocks and other geological objects.
The rover, which is moving to South Séítah, is expected to meet with a drone in the coming days.
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